Mint bonus episode: I was invited to speak at NFT LA back in 2022 about the creator economy and hosted a discussion with Jesse Tevelow of Praise, Alexandra Hooven of Rally, and Noel Borges of Mintblack. 00:00 - Intro 02:12 - The current state of the web3 creator economy 06:28 - Should creators strive to build virality or a niche group of true fans? 14:22 - How to transition your web2 audience into web3? 22:02 - What data can creators unlock via NFTs and other crypto assets? 35:47 - Outro …and so much more I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Dariya is a Co-Founder at ⁠Layer3⁠, the consumer attention layer for Web3. Previously, he built several apps, sold an Instagram network, and launched Mastermind, a mentorship platform. Follow Dariya on X ⁠@DariyaKho⁠ 0:00 - Selling Pokemon cards as a kid 7:32 - Building curated accounts on Instagram 15:59 - Being early to Instagram and learning to grow audiences 21:50 - Dariya’s favorite apps he built when he was young 28:51 - Monetizing intangible value with crypto 38:06 - Discovering crypto as a “nerd on the internet” 46:46 - Learning to express creativity in design versus code 48:33 - Making products that make users feel good 55:52 - The origin story behind Layer3 1:01:26 - Layer3’s business model and recent success 1:05:06 - What’s next for Layer3 Mint this episode for free onchain on Base at ⁠⁠pods.media/pod-of-jake/182-dariya-khojasteh⁠⁠ For more episodes, go to ⁠⁠podofjake.com⁠⁠. Previous guests include ⁠⁠Mark Cuban⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Vitalik Buterin⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Brian Armstrong⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Balaji Srinivasan⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Keith⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Rabois⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Ali Spagnola⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Anthony Pompliano⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Raoul Pal⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Julia Galef⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Jack Butcher⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Tim Draper⁠⁠, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like ⁠⁠OpenAI⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Coinbase⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Solana⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Polygon⁠⁠, ⁠⁠AngelList⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Oura⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Replit⁠⁠, and investors from ⁠⁠Founders⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Fund⁠⁠, ⁠⁠a16z⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Union Square Ventures⁠⁠, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to ⁠⁠⁠Chase Devens⁠⁠⁠ for the show notes and ⁠⁠⁠Yiction⁠⁠⁠ for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at ⁠⁠jake@blogofjake.com⁠⁠. Thank you!

In this episode we chat with Colby Mugrabi, founder of mmERCH. We dive into Colby’s early obsession with fashion, her crypto origin story, initial experiences with the “metaverse” and virtual fashion, the inspiration and vision behind founding mmERCH, lessons & learnings from their Genesis drop, how the fashion industry views crypto, upcoming releases, and more.

Grace Guan is the other (more demure) half of the Unlonely siblings. Grace may be the quieter of the two, but her story is certainly full of rich and loud experience. We speak about how her upbringing — having early exposure to a foreign land in Berlin — shaped who she is today; her time working in fashion, how she fell into tech, specifically working at YouTube. The conversation then flows into the complexities of the creator economy, pressures of content creation, lessons from her MBA, and the founding of Unlonely. I really hope you enjoy listening and watching this conversation as much as I loved hosting it.

With Bitcoin ETF options on the horizon, the crypto market is bracing for significant changes. In this episode, Joshua Lim, co-founder and CEO of Arbelos Markets, joins us to explain what the launch of Bitcoin ETF options means for the broader market. Could they unlock vast amounts of capital and set off a new altcoin boom? Josh also dives into the potential effects on Bitcoin volatility, DeFi lending, and even the onchain options markets. Plus, what could the 2024 U.S. presidential election mean for Bitcoin?